Hello, there is a new one Ni No Kuni Game over! And it looks beautiful! This should be cause for celebration, but we don’t deserve nice things. Instead we have a mobile/pc gacha game built on a foundation of crypto nonsense.
As we mentioned earlier, the perceived “value” of these markets is in free fallbut while that’s bad news for “owners” of cartoon JPGs and made-up currencies, many video game studios and publishers are going ahead anyway, and among them are Korean developers Netmarble, the team behind it Ni No Kuni: Cross Worldswhich, despite a 2021 release in Asia, was only made available in the West last week.
Check out this trailer and you’ll see why fans of the series – and of Studio Ghibli – might have been excited!
Unfortunately, this is now the part of the story where I tell you, this is actually a gacha game which also has cryptocurrency bullshit baked into it. Netmarble has its own cryptocurrency wallet called Marblex, and how this website helpfully points outallows players to take items from the game, exchange them for Netmarble’s Asterite or Territe tokens (currencies you can trade on Marblex) and then exchange them for other cryptocurrencies.
As the game’s website proudly boasts on their front page, emphasizing how central this is to the game’s entire existence:
Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds uses a gameplay-based blockchain system that allows players who enjoy Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds to earn tokens through gameplay.
Players can purchase two types of tokens in the Ni no Kuni: Cross Worlds blockchain system, and our team will do our best to preserve the token values.
Oh, and they are also plans to launch NFTs later in the year.
Players report that less than a week after launch, the game’s economy is already tilted heavily in favor of those who buy the company’s crypto. As Tezoze says on this pageost: “Crypto was labeled ‘minimal’ in-game, but it seems like you can literally buy the best in-game slot sets and pets right in the store. No gacha, no gimmicks, direct purchase only. This is extremely terrifying and creates a massive imbalance in PvP.”
I know gacha games have their fans, but I’m not one of them because it’s a form of gambling and no matter how innocent anecdotes may seem, the mechanics themselves help normalize the practice among young people. So I think gacha games marketed to kids are bad enough. A gacha game that also includes crypto speculation, and binEmphasis on “play to make money” mechanics? get the fuck out of here
TO UPDATE: Despite the company’s mention in the game’s launch trailer, Studio Ghibli’s exact role in this release is unclear, so the post has been edited to reflect this.
